The present invention relates generally to a configurable secondary attachment hook of a garment hanger.
Many garment hangers provides a pant bar, or brace connecting in between the remote ends of the shoulder supporting areas. This brace strengthens the supporting property of the supporting arms and also provides a location to put the pants. On the other hand, the existence of the brace requires more room to pack the garment hangers and increases the transportation and storage cost. Furthermore, a user is required to remove the clothing supported on the hanger before the pants can be accessed.
It is the design goal of the invention to provide a configurable secondary attachment hook on the invented hanger to replace the supporting brace. The hook is designed for a user to support a pair of pants on a second traditional hanger, then support the traditional hanger with the second attachment hook of the invented hanger.
The prior art is replete with various designs of garment hangers, which incorporate structure of a secondary attachment hook. U.S. Pat. No. 1,781,628 to Boyle discloses a garment hanger having a secondary hook attached on the front side of the medial portion of a garment hanger. U.S. Pat. No. 1,563,735 to Fetters discloses a coat hanger with a pair secondary attachment hooks; U.S. Pat. No. 835,464 to Palmenberg; U.S. Pat. No. 1,490,301 to Ward and the references cited therein, also exemplify such constructions.
The present invention is directed to garment hangers having a secondary attachment suspension member, typically an open-ended hook. Traditional garment hangers provide a brace, or pant bar connecting in between the remote ends of the shoulder supporting areas. This pant bar strengthens the supporting arms and also provides a location to support the pants simultaneously with another upper clothing on the same hanger. On the other hand, the existence of the pant bar increases the transportation and storage cost of the garment hanger. This is because in a packaging design, the pant bar prohibits the neighboring hanger to access the area enclosed by the pant bar and the two supporting arms which forms a solid triangle. There is another advantage for a user to support a pair of pants onto a second hanger and then attach the second hanger to the secondary hook of the first hanger. This arrangement enables the user to easily access the pants without removing the clothing supported on the hanger, as required for the traditional triangular hanger. Besides, it is more convenient for a user to coordinate; match or group different upper clothing with pants or skirts.
In the situation of an adjustable garment hanger, the pant bar connecting between the remote ends of the supporting arms creates some other design difficulties. Firstly the remote ends of the moving supporting arms are of variable distance apart. A variable length design will increase the complexity of the pant bar and also raises cost. Another option is to design the pant bar to attach with the fixed length supporting arms, upon which the movable support arms are adjusted to vary the hanger supporting width. In this way the length of the pant bar is fixed at the minimum supporting width of the adjustable garment hanger. This length may be inadequate to support the pants of the bigger users who require the adjustable garment hanger to be fully expanded. According to this research study, there is a desire to eliminate the supporting pant bar of an adjustable garment hanger, and replace it with the secondary attachment hook for costing and convenience advantages.
In order for the garment hanger to be symmetrical balanced, it is a design requirement for the secondary attachment hook to locate at the vertical central axis of the garment hanger, preferably extending from the medial portion. The area located beneath the medial portion is an ideal location to position the secondary attachment hook. On the other hand, it is disclosed in applicant""s issued U.S. Pat. 5,102,019 to have a adjustment knob located at the medial portion of an adjustable width garment hanger. The knob enables the user to adjust the width of the garment hanger with the clothing supported on the garment hanger. Similarly, the perfect location of this adjustment knob is also along the vertical axis of the garment hanger, preferably the area beneath the medial portion. Accordingly, the secondary attachment hook is competing with the adjustment knob for the prime location around the medial portion. Due to the complexity of the adjustment width mechanism, priority is often given to the knob for selecting the location.
It is also a design goal of the invention to have the secondary attachment hook to retreat to a position not to exceed the natural thickness of the garment hanger, to facilitate storage and packaging. It is also a design goal of the invention to provide a secondary attachment hook, protruded from either the front or rear side of the garment hanger, to facilitate a user to attach the second hanger. In a first preferred embodiment of the invention, the structure of the secondary attachment hook is provided in the form of a drawer. When the drawer is closed, the secondary attachment hook submerges into the body of the medial portion to provide the first storage mode. When the drawer is opened, the secondary attachment hook emerges from the frontal or rear surface of the garment hanger for receiving the suspension member of another garment hanger.
In another preferable embodiment, the secondary suspension hook is rotatable along the axis of the suspension member either on top or below the medial portion. When the hanger is configured to provide the storage mode, the hook is rotated to a position parallel to the span of the garment hanger. When the secondary attachment hook is reconfigured to provide the second functional mode, the suspension hook is rotated by approximately 90 degree, so that the secondary hook extends beyond the frontal or rear surface, of the garment hanger. A portion of the secondary attachment hook is preferred to be in the shape of a hollow tube, so that it can be slid into the linear region of the primary suspension member, and rotate around this linear region. It is also an optional design feature for the secondary attachment hook to be tightly fitted with the first attachment hook so that it will not be switched in between different modes of operation unexpectedly. Alternatively, resilient detents may be added to keep the position of the storage mode from the functional mode.
In another preferred embodiment, the secondary suspension member is formed in the shape of a lever, equipped with a hinge enabling it to transform in between the two predefined modes of configurations. In the first mode of operation, the lever stays flat with the surface of the medial portion. When the lever is rotated by a certain predefined angle, a hook shape structure is protruded from the surface of the medial portion ready to receive the hook of another garment hanger.
Accordingly it is submitted that the term configurable define that the secondary attachment hook is switchable in between at least two predefine modes of operation, each service a different design purpose. The novel features of the invention enable the garment hanger to provide a configurable secondary attachment member for receiving the hook of a separated garment hanger; so as to facilitate the user to efficiently access; coordinate; match or group pants or skirts with different upper clothing.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.